There are a wide variety of pre-made beverages available for purchase by consumers. Consumers can walk into almost any convenience store, grocery store, or gas station and select from a variety of different pre-made beverages. The available beverages often include carbonated sodas, mineral or other waters, and sport drinks. Natural juice beverages are also typically available and often have fruit juice content, such as orange juice, apple juice, and grapefruit juice.
More recently, so-called specialty drinks are becoming commonly available. One example of a specialty drink lists as its ingredients taurine, glucuronolactone, caffeine, B-complex vitamins, and carbohydrates. Other specialty drinks include various anti-oxidants and natural herbs. The variety of different specialty beverages offered is indicative of a desirability to provide drinks tailored specifically to the needs of individual consumers. The available types of readily consumable beverages, although numerous compared to the types of carbonated sodas available, are not numerous enough to address the need for a beverage that can be tailored and customized according to each individual's personal preferences. Thus, there is a need to provide consumers with beverages having ingredients such as flavorings, nutrients, vitamins, and herbs that are customizable according to individual consumer tastes, nutritional needs, and other preferences.
In addition to the pre-made beverages commonly available at convenience stores, grocery stores and markets offer a selection of powdered beverage concentrates to consumers. Powdered beverage concentrates may be combined with a liquid, typically water, to form a freshly made flavored beverage. Powdered beverage concentrates often are packaged either in large, multi-serving tubs or in individual packets or mini-tubs that correspond to a particular serving size. Packets of powdered beverage concentrates often are produced in a size that makes two quarts of flavored beverage when combined with water. Similarly, individual mini-tubs of powdered drink concentrates also typically combine with water to form two quarts of beverage. While these individual packets and mini-tubs can be more convenient for consumers to use compared to the beverage powder concentrates packaged in bulk, they still are typically intended primarily for home use. Due to the large volume of beverage, typically two quarts, that the contents of packets and mini-tubs make when combined with water, they may be impractical for use away from home.
Powdered beverage concentrates that combine with water to form two quarts of flavored beverage are also undesirable due to their large size because once made a consumer typically has no variety of flavor or taste. For example, a consumer may one day want to have a cherry flavored drink and then the next an orange flavored drink. Unless the consumer has several different two-quart pitchers, the two-quart size may restrict the consumer to first drinking multiple servings of one beverage flavor before washing the pitcher and making a different beverage flavor. Thus, it is desirable to provide consumers with a beverage that can be distributed in individual serving sizes so that consumers may make a large variety of customized drinks without having to have a large number of pitchers.
Furthermore, the two-quart size is inconvenient for consumers who want to make only a single serving of beverage at a particular time. The packets and mini-tubs typically cannot easily be resealed if a consumer only withdraws enough for a single serving. Large tubs are often resealable to allow consumers to withdraw only the amount of concentrate that they need. For example, a tablespoon or other portion of beverage concentrate may be combined with water in a glass or cup to form a single beverage serving. However, large tubs are disadvantageous because their size may render them inconvenient for a consumer to easily transport to the work place, school, etc. A consumer could attempt to put a single serving size of beverage powder in a reclosable plastic bag, but the powdered nature of beverage concentrates can make transfer and handling messy and inconvenient. Thus, there is a need for a more convenient system to provide consumers with single serving portions of a beverage concentrate.
While packaging powdered beverage concentrate in large tubs allows consumers to withdraw a desired portion of concentrate, such as single-serving portions, large tubs also allow consumers to withdraw imprecise amounts. Imprecise amounts of concentrate, when mixed with liquid, can result in flavor or other variations in the resulting beverage. For example, if too little of a portion of concentrate is combined with a given quantity of water, the resulting beverage may be diluted, having a watered-down flavor. Thus, it is desirable to provide consumers with single-serving portions of beverage concentrate that are packaged in relatively precise quantities.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,492, to Lucas, discloses a disposable coffee cup or container. The container has a beverage concentrate, such as instant coffee, in the bottom thereof. A thin film with a shape corresponding to the interior of the container is disposed in the container. The bottom of the film is elevated from the bottom of the container to hold the beverage concentrate therebetween and protect the beverage concentrate. To make a beverage, the film is removed from within the container, thereby exposing the beverage concentrate. Fluid can then be added to the beverage concentrate to form a beverage.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,502, also to Lucas, discloses a container and liner arrangement similar to that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,492 and discussed above. However, the bottom of the liner in U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,502 extends to the bottom of the container. The liner has one or more compartments or pockets formed therein for separating different beverage concentrates and holding them against the bottom of the container. Removal of the liner and addition of a liquid causes the different beverage concentrates to combine into a beverage.
There remains a need for a beverage system that allows for customization of the beverage by individual consumers.